Asylum seeker was ‘staring spookily’ at hotel worker on day of fatal stabbing

An asylum seeker was seen staring at a hotel worker “spookily” and “like he was planning something” hours before she was fatally stabbed on a railway station platform, a murder trial jury has heard.

Deng Chol Majek, who claims to be 19 and is originally from Sudan, was “just fixated at the bar area” where Rhiannon Skye Whyte was handing out snacks on the evening of Sunday October 20 last year, one of her colleagues told Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Majek is alleged to have stabbed Ms Whyte a total of 23 times, with the majority of wounds to her head, after “tracking” her from Walsall’s Park Inn hotel to the nearby Bescot Stadium station following the end of her shift at 11pm.

Witnesses who worked at the hotel gave evidence on Wednesday, with one describing how a resident seen staring at Rhiannon had also knocked into the 27-year-old’s arm after she went outside to vape.

Hotel chef Louise Brittle and duty manager Claire Taylor-Bevans both gave evidence from behind a curtain shielding them from view from the public gallery and the dock.

Mrs Brittle told the court she saw a tall, dark-skinned man sitting at a high table, and wearing a silver top with the hood up, during her shift from 2pm to 10pm on October 20.

Answering questions from prosecution KC Michelle Heeley, the witness told the jury: “He was sitting relaxed in a high chair with one arm on the table and his foot on a bench… just staring.

“He was staring towards the bar area. I came out of the kitchen and I noticed him straight away.

“He was just staring through us … like eyes wide open and he just couldn’t take his eyes off any of us.”

Mrs Brittle said she had turned a chair around so her back was towards the service user, adding: “I said how scary it felt. The way he was staring at us.

“He had been there around three months at the hotel. He never interacted with many people. He was like a loner.”

After learning the following day that Ms Whyte had been killed, the court heard, Mrs Brittle was shown an image of the man who had been arrested.

“I actually asked for the image,” she told the court. “I was shown the exact image that I still have in my mind. It was of the person sitting opposite the bar area that night, staring at us all.”

Under cross-examination from defence barrister Gurdeep Garcha KC, Mrs Brittle said of the man: “It was like he was planning something, that’s the only way I can describe it. It was really scary, it was like he was going to do something that night.

“That’s how scared I felt.”

Mrs Taylor-Bevans, the second witness in the trial, started working at the Park Inn around two weeks before Ms Whyte was attacked.

She told the court a man had stared at her, Ms Whyte and another hotel worker.

“He was staring at all three of us behind the bar, spookily. Like through us – as though we weren’t there,” she said. “I felt intimidated.”

Mrs Taylor-Bevans said she had reported the resident to the security team at the Serco-run hotel.

“When we had finished serving the crisps and biscuits I went to the reception area and commented to (a member of the security staff) to say we all felt intimidated,” she said.

After asking security to “keep an eye” on the man, the witness said, she called her two female colleagues away from the bar area.

Describing an incident which happened after three staff members went outside to vape, Mrs Taylor-Bevans added that “the resident we are talking about” had “brushed past my arm and knocked Rhiannon’s arm” as they returned inside the hotel.

The witness continued: “I looked at her (Rhiannon) and said ‘what happened?’ and she said ‘He’s just knocked me’. I can remember her saying ‘What the f***?'”

Majek denies murder and possession of an offensive weapon. The trial continues.